These are the best free soundtracks for freelancing

Working from home has some serious advantages, not least of which being that you can listen to any music you want, without headphones. But I dunno about you, but I find music with lyrics really distracting when I’m trying to read or write…the lyrics sort of get priority in my head and I lose the thread of whatever sentence I was trying to compose.

So if you can stand lyrics, then by all means put on whatever you like best! If not, here are a couple ideas that I really like:

Rainymood.com – this isn’t so much music as a set of relaxing background sounds. Load Rainymood and you have a mini thunderstorm in your home office. I also like to run Rainymood at the same time as Spotify or Pandora. It sounds weird, but thunder can really improve some music.

Coffitivity.com – again, not so much music as background noise. This site makes your office sound like a busy coffee shop, with other people getting work done next to you. It’s like a real coffee shop except you can mute it for phone calls and the Wifi is way better.

Sometimes, especially on days like today where it is cold and foggy, all I want is to be somewhere else, so I put on the sounds of the beach. Don’t like beaches? Try searching YouTube for waterfalls, rainforests, or whatever really floats your boat.

The “Mozart effect” may be overrated, but on the other hand, there may be something to the idea of listening to music with a regular, consistent beat — and one that’s not too fast, not too slow. Spotify, Pandora and Youtube are your friends here (as is the local library), or just livestream a classical radio station.